Milking camels for the next super food

In this July 9, 2010, file photo, Gil Riegler, of Oasis Camel Dairy works quickly while milking of one of his camels in Ramona, Calif. To milk a camel, you need timing, warm hands, a gentle touch and it helps if you are fast on your feet, as the whole thing takes around ninety seconds. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Against the backdrop of the Newfound Mountains, Frank King is looking for the next super food on his farm north of Asheville, N.C.

His herd of 300 majestic bison graze the rolling pastures -- for their leaner, healthier meat. But Leicester, N.C., is more than where the buffalo roam.

The farm also is home to a herd of 23 camels -- humped dromedary camels, familiar in tour shots of the Egyptian pyramids, and double-humped hairy Bactrians, native to Asia and comfortable in mountain cold. “Those are the animals that built the Great Wall of China,” King said.

Now King hopes to build a new business on the camel’s milk. Long a staple food in the Middle East, camel milk could provide nutrition and dietary supplements and sell at prices starting at $18 a pint in this country.

We are largely what we eat, King argues. “Epigenetics suggest that we can actually change our genes by how we live. Right now in modern society, we are like polar bears released into a Death Valley environment. When people connect with nature, they feel better, and wild is better.”

Camels are some of the most adaptive animals on the planet, able to endure blazing hot Saharan deserts and bitterly cold Mongolian steppes. Consuming their milk could provide health benefits. Some Amish parents, for example, believe that camel milk can help their children with autism and attention deficient disorders, King said. The Amish have started their own camel dairies in this country.

“The milk is tasty. The dromedaries’ milk has a slightly salted taste and creamier. The Bactrians’ is less salty,” King said. King and his family are drinking about four doses a day for better health.

Healing foods

King has always been interested in health. He trained as a chiropractor and naturopathic doctor in Atlanta. In 1989, he opened his King Bio plant in Leicester, creating homeopathic remedies with a distilled water base. In the past year, King’s pharmaceuticals have gone mainstream, appearing over the counter in shelves at Whole Foods, Earthfare, Walmart, CVS, Walgreen’s, Target and other top retailers. King Bio employs more than 100 people. It reported revenue of around $10 million last year. King expects revenue could double this year.

Looking for a better diet led King into the bison business. Bison was the staple of the American Indian and has less fat and cholesterol than many fish or conventional beef. King has turned Carolina Bison into a more than $3 million business that will harvest and sell some 5,000 bison this year in local stores and restaurants.

Homeopathy, bison meat and now camel milk all fit into King’s philosophy of a “Healing Revolution” -- a line of books and videos he’s promoting with his products.

Bison, camels don’t mix

The farmhands keep the wild bison and the domesticated camels in separate pastures behind electrified fencing. “We don’t want to see a bison horn in a camel’s side,” King said.

Farm manager Mike Ellington finds that caring for both the strong and unpredictable bison and the more passive and friendly camels makes for an interesting work day.

Old Jack, the herd’s bull camel, stands about 8 feet tall at his hump and probably weighs in at around 1,900 pounds. He wanders over to the gate, looking for handouts of hay. “Old Jack, he’s just a people person,” said Ellington, a veteran livestock man who once rode bulls and worked as a rodeo clown before joining King’s operation.

The camels are milked by hand, producing about two gallons a day. The farm hands put the mothers in with their babies to get the milk flowing, then move the youngsters aside. “You don’t have to bend over,” King said. “You can milk standing up.”

They are still experimenting with pasteurization methods, required by federal law if the milk is to be sold across state lines, although King hopes that rules will be relaxed for raw milk products in the future. For now, they have a 15-second flash pasteurization method that leaves more of the nutrients intact.

Through his Wild Food Foundation nonprofit, King is pursuing research on camel milk as well as products from 29 Himalayan yak and a pair of exotic African Watusi, a kind of herd animal whose 8-foot-long horns put Texas longhorns to shame. African tribes blend Watusi milk and blood together in a fermented drink.

A healthy prophesy

King is also breeding another rarity -- white buffalo, which occur in nature only perhaps one in a million. With about 18 white buffalo, King may have the largest collection in the country.

Considered sacred among some American Indian tribes, the white buffalo will not be harvested for meat, but King sees potential profit in their lighter cooled wool, which is 40 times warmer than sheep’s wool.

“There’s something peaceful about being around the white buffalo. You don’t feel the same aggressive power as among the other bison. I feel it.”

The North American continent once was home to an estimated 60 million bison, which were hunted nearly to extinction in the 19th century, with only about 1,000 survivors.

The prophesy of some tribes held that with the return of the buffalo, all people of all races would be reunited in health, King said.

“The white man wiped out the bison. Cardiovascular disease is wiping out the white man, now the bison have come back to help out the white man.”

Camel dairies growing

Several farms owning collections of breeding camels are adopting camel milking programs in the states of Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, with new milking programs set to open in Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The camel population in the U.S. is estimated at 5,000.

Scientific studies show:

Levels of potassium, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, sodium and zinc are higher than in cow’s milk.

Cholesterol in camel milk is lower than cow or goat milk.

Camel milk is three times higher in vitamin C than cow’s milk and 10 times higher in iron.

Camel milk is also high in unsaturated fatty acids and B vitamins but lower in vitamin A and B2 (than cow milk).